The Law Officers of the Crown are the chief legal advisers to the Crown, and advise and represent the central and devolved governments in the United Kingdom and national and sub-national in other Commonwealth realms.

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The Attorney General for England and Wales is the chief legal adviser of the Crown in England and Wales, and a member of the UK Government. The Attorney General provides legal advice to the Government of the day. By convention, and unlike the papers of other ministers, this legal advice is available to subsequent governments.

The Attorney General has public interest functions, being, for example, the trustee of default where a sole trustee has died, and can also take cases to the Supreme Court where points of general legal importance need to be settled.

Most Commonwealth and colonial governments also have their own Attorneys General. Sometimes the legal advisers of subnational governments are given the title Advocate General. In Hong Kong, apart from the Solicitor General and the Crown Prosecutor (the Director of Public Prosecutions before 1997), there are also the Law Officer (Civil), the Law Officer (International) and the Law Draftsman. All these five offices are "Law Officers" reporting to the Attorney General (known since 1997 as the Secretary for Justice).

Some subjects are entitled to have an attorney general: these include a Queen consort and the Prince of Wales, who has an Attorney General for the Duchy of Cornwall. There is also an Attorney General for the Duchy of Lancaster, which is a mostly landed inheritance that is held in trust for the monarch and administered independently of the monarch under the supervision of a Government minister, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.